The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for communicating between a computing device and an intelligent electronic device (IED) associated with a switching device used in a power system.
In recent years, the use of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in power systems has increased. More and more IEDs are used for control and/or monitoring of associated switching devices, such as circuit breakers. An IED by definition is a microprocessor-based device, typically a controller relay, with at least one communications port. The communications port is used to communicate with a computing device operated by a user, for example to download data or change settings. To this end, dedicated user-interface software to be installed on the computing device is delivered with the IED. This software usually has features that allow users to edit settings or display data by means of tables and/or graphics.
Since users deal with a variety of different IEDs devised for different purposes and provided from different manufacturers, the amount of new information that needs to be absorbed by users becomes overwhelming. Due to the absence of applicable standards, a manufacturer of IEDs needs to ensure that the product is as much as possible user-friendly, by reducing the amount of a prior knowledge required to the user in order to work with the IED supplied and to set it for proper operations either during pre-installation phases, e.g. factory set-up or commissioning, or when the IED is installed in service, e.g. during data download or for alarm resolution purposes.
For example, commissioning of an IED that controls and/or monitors a circuit breaker is non-trivial. In addition of reviewing and possibly changing the settings of the IED, the circuit breaker also needs to be operated and certain actions need to be taken depending on the data that was collected during the operation. A traditional type of user-interface software provides step-by-step instructions only as part of the help function or the instruction book. The user is expected to shift his focus between software on the one hand and separate instructions on the other hand many times before the task is completed. This is cumbersome and error-prone. In addition to the user losing time over a cumbersome procedure, there is a risk that the commissioning process is left incomplete or with configuration errors. This may result in sub-optimal performance of the IED, false alarms or even failure of the IED to perform its intended function. This in turn leads to downtime of the primary equipment and more resources to be invested on behalf of the user.
Further, once an IED is in service, it is expected to perform without problems. If problems occur, there are chances that the operator sent to investigate the problem is not familiar with the specific IED because of the increasing variety of IEDs used in power system. If the user obtains technical support from the IED manufacturer, the manufacturer will often request a data download. Downloading data stored on the IED is the first step to troubleshooting but it may also be the first stumbling block. Indeed, different IEDs require different user-interface software differing in the actions to be taken to obtain a data download. Typical data downloads involve opening of a communications channel, requesting the data stored on the IED and saving the data to a file. Opening of the communication channel may depend on the communications ports available on the user's computer, such as Ethernet, USB, RS232 etc., and communications parameters, e.g. network parameters, baud rates etc. The menu picks and data entries or selections that have to be made in order to perform a data download may not be obvious to the user and valuable time is lost searching the documentation for help.
The user may also attempt troubleshooting directly. Again, because of the increasing variety of IEDs used, the user may not be familiar with the IED and the interpretation of the data stored on the IED becomes non-trivial. Valuable time may be lost studying documentation. In addition loss of revenues may occur if the problem is of such severity that a circuit breaker outage is required.
Therefore, in the situations described above, a simpler, faster and less error-prone solution is desirable in order to perform the required tasks. This solution is provided by the method and apparatus of the present invention.